“We need to recognize that ‘disruptions’ are a fact of life since the beginning of time, and putting them to rest once and for all is not possible,” Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Prasad Kariyawasam said.

Delivering the valedictory statement that took the title ‘Security in an Era of Global Disruptions’ at the Defence Seminar 2018 held in Colombo Friday (31), he added that disruption would continue to take place, as it has also given rise to all things ‘including the very formation of our planet’, and pave way to the appearance of stability to be transient and deceptive.

Kariyawasam explained disruptions in nature and human societies have led the humankind to where we are today.

“For example, human population growth led to farming and migration,” he said, “the exploration for new land, extracting resources from the land; scientific inquiry into modern farming techniques, medication and new discoveries to cure and treat disease; the search for new markets for trade which continues even now; space and undersea exploration; the formation of the system of Nation States and the demarcation of boundaries through war and peace; evolution of rules and regulations; the multilateral rules based international order; and the financial operating system that we know today.”

However, the end objective and also the challenge we are facing now is to discover mechanisms to ‘adopt and adapt’ to these disruptions, while also sustaining life on earth and ensuring that well-being of humans are promoted and secured.

Taking the life story of Italian scientist Galileo Galilei whose invention of the telescope shed light regarding the revolution of planets and was heavily criticised by the Catholic Church, Kariyawasam said, “what may be ‘perceived’ by some human beings as a ‘disruption’ in one era, or at a particular moment in time, may not necessarily prove to be so, and can in fact lead to human progress for greater good.” He added that humans have the capacity to critically analyse, assess and distinguish between positive and negative disruptions, and to take steps to prevent and as precautions. But what is “lacking, unfortunately, is the collective will to act in a timely manner in the interest of the common good.” Disruptions in the politico-military sense can lead to disastrous consequences as it has an domino effect, he said, and ones the chips starts to fall one cannot predict its ending. “In our history, disruptions in the form of major wars such as the two recent World Wars, have given us ample reasons to strive towards achieving strategic harmony for the common good of nations, human beings, and the Planet as a whole,” he declared.